Peanut Butter and Jam Energy Balls (& The Elephant in the Living Room)

Now that I think about it, I know more vegans in Houston than I did in Toronto.

In Toronto, I never tried to connect with the vegan community. However, in Houston, this is where I am searching for like-minded souls.

In addition to the raw vegan meet-up potluck, I have connected with others at the Vegan Society of P.E.A.C.E. (VSOP)’s monthly potluck. While not all vegan (some vegetarians and veg-curious also come), a large crowd gathers each month to share tasty vegan eats and learn a bit more about other vegan issues. Lately, it has been about travelling as a vegan in Asia but they have been highlighting more issues surrounding animals. At the last meeting, an upcoming viewing of the documentary The Elephant in the Living Room was promoted. Turns out it was on Netflix, so Rob and I watched it later that week.

The Elephant in the Living Room is a quite powerful, yet humble documentary about exotic animals as pets. Did you know that there are more tigers in Texas than there are in the in wild worldwide? What do you do when you no longer want your python? The climax of the film surrounds the connection between an Ohio resident, Terry, with 2 lions and 4 cubs, housed in his backyard. It was a good movie and I recommend it. Another great documentary related to animals is The Cove, which won an Academy Award in 2010. That is a in a league of its own, though. That was a thrilling documentary!

In any case, chronically my life through the foods that surround these events, I present to you these quick and easy peanut butter and jam energy balls. Flavourful peanuts are key for this recipe, which is why I highly recommend using roasted peanuts. I didn’t want to be wrist-slapped if I brought them to a raw vegan potluck, so I shared it with this vegan potluck instead.

With such a simple ingredient list, you might not think too much about them. However, there was a nice balance of chunky peanuts and jam-like sweet raisins. The extra peanut butter kept the balls together nicely. Add salt to taste, but I guarantee you it needs some to make the flavours pop.

When Rob taste-tested them, he thought they were better than my typical date balls I bring cycling. At first, I felt bad for my dateballs, but then took it as a compliment that these were just really good. :)

There is only one problem with the potlucks. Sometimes it seems like a tease to try so many great dishes, but not get a corresponding recipe. Thankfully, I connected with someone who shared the recipe for her fudgy black bean brownies. I look forward to following her blog and connecting more, because her MoFo theme is eating out as a vegan in Houston. I am impressed she can support a month’s worth of posts!! It may not be so bad as a vegan in Houston after all. :)

Have you seen The Elephant in the Living Room or The Cove? Any other documentaries you recommend?

27 Responses

When you titled this “The Elephant in the Living Room” and I started to read about the vegan potlucks, I thought you were using it metaphorically as having found that some of the vegans are a little crazy and no one wants to really acknowledge it. I’ve met those who refuse to have any fat in their diet (went walking with a guy who subscribes to this. He is 16 years younger than me—and had no energy for the walk! And he looked awful/anorexic. Wouldn’t you know, he is talking about further restricting calories twice a week in a fast) and those who call Monsanto Montsatan (not that I love Big Agriculture) and talk about chemtrails. So I was surprised to hear that it literally was about elephants in living rooms!

Balls sound delicious. I may take some to the gym instead of the usual banana since my recent blood tests showed I’m just a wee bit high in potassium. Do you think they’d disintegrate if they weren’t refrigerated for 90 minutes?

i’m so glad you were able to find a group to connect with down there. Do you mind if i asked how you did that? i’m a vegetarian in a rural part of Maryland and haven’t found any connections so i was curious.

Hi Jacquie, I found the potluck through meetup.com by searching for vegan and vegetarian groups in my area. You could also see if there is a vegetarian association nearby that may know of local events. Hope this helps and you are able to connect with others. :)

I think it’s great that you’re trying to connect with other vegans locally. I’ve just moved and am hoping to go along to some meetups as well. I haven’t heard of “The Elephant in the living room” but it sounds really interesting, not an issue I was even aware of. The Cove is a great film too.
I saw these balls and bookmarked them. Thanks for the tips :)

Many of my close friends aren’t vegetarian or vegan, but the new friends I find myself gravitating more and more towards are definitely into food and into plant-based food specifically! It’s funny how that changes when you kind of have to “restart” in life.

These look so good and are so simple, too! I feel ya on the wrist-slapping in the raw world. I totally get the philosophy of raw food and I love it and live it .. but sometimes a pb&J themed treat is just a good treat!! I’ll make some for the hubby and myself when we travel next week :) thank you!

And thanks for sharing about the documentary, I always love hearing about different, informative movies.

your talk of movies reminds me of when we were young and we would watch a movie at the church hall and then everyone would bring a plate (that is a plate of food) and we would all enjoy a meal – it was before I heard the word potluck! sounds like your potlucks are interesting and that moving to a new town probably gives you more energy to try such events – glad the peanut balls tasted good as they look

Chrissie, I honestly thought the same thing this weekend. Rob and I went out for our typical weekend bike ride at 7am and I honestly felt cold! Granted, I was wearing a sleeveless jersey and cycling shorts, but there was definitely a chilly nip in the air! Of course, the temperature was only 20C (68F) so not really that cold at all. And definitely not as good as my family in Ottawa and Toronto who have frost warnings at night now. :) I am SUPER excited for this fall/winter! :)

My stereotypes of Houston are such that I’m surprised and impressed there is such a thriving vegan community – but then again, stereotypes are meant to be turned upside down. These energy balls look fantastic too!

Yay! So glad that you liked the balls. And I’m so glad that you’re connecting with likeminded folks in Houston. No matter where you are, there is always a community present — thank goodness the internet allows us to find it these days. xo

[…] Peanut butter cookies to the rescue. Peanut butter and wait for it, mashed chickpeas, are the base for these cookies. I chopped up some chocolate to incorporate into the sweet batter. Now we had peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies! I am no stranger to beans in cookies, either. One of my favourite cookies are these chocolate mint cookies made with black beans and these chocolate chip chickpea blondies were a hit, too. I like bean-based cookies because they are softer and more cake-like, instead of hard and crackly cookies. They certainly have a different texture but you would never know there were chickpeas in them. These would also make a nice snack while cycling/exercising – a nice change of pace from date-based treats. […]